Twelve months from now, one of two things is true.
Either you're still explaining the same situation to someone, still doing the work, still watching the promotion go to whoever's better at being seen, not better at the job. Or something actually changed.
Tomorrow I'm telling you about the promotion I lost early in my career, not because I was wrong about anything technical. Because being right wasn't what got evaluated. And the mistake I made years later, after I did become a CTO, that cost me more than that missed promotion ever did.
Both of those taught me the same thing: being indispensable feels like leverage. From the other side of the table, it reads as risk. Nobody tells you that early enough for it to matter.
I'm also opening the doors on the thing built from 25 years of sitting on that side of the table.
Tomorrow. Video's up, and it's live.
- Karell aka The Serious CTO